UG's Regrets from the Past?

I was just sitting here after recommending the Peavey Vypyr Tube 60 for the 50th time, and I was thinking about how I wish they would have been around when I was in high school and bought my Marshall MG for about what they go for used. Then I got to thinking, I wonder what purchases other UG'ers have regretted?

So let's hear it, guys! What are some purchases that you ended up regretting a good bit later?

For me, the MG30DFX is my big regret. I had the chance to buy a Crate V18 about a month before I bought this, but my Mom urged me to wait until later when I had more money, as I bought my Les Paul on that same day. Stupidly, I ended up listening to her after she said she would meet me half-way on whatever I bought if I waited. I came back, and the shop had sold the V18 and had no more in stock, as they weren't being made anymore. Then, I tried a bunch of amps, including a Vox Valvetronix, Roland Cube, Line 6 Spider, and my Marshall MG, and ended up buying the MG for reasons that are beyond my comprehension, not to mention she only paid for about 1/3 to 1/4 of it, instead of the 1/2 I was promised.

My only other regret is the JCA24S that I currently have. After some advice on here, I bought it without trying it with my amp head, beleiving that it would sound similar to a V30-loaded cab, since that's what Soldano uses for his amps. Not the case. I don't really like it's speakers, it's somewhat odd shape (it's awkwardly tall), and the Randall cab I was looking at wouldn't have sounded much better, but it had the Metal Grille I was looking for, because we all know that if you can't bounce a bottle of Jack Daniels off of the front of your cab, then it's useless (Gregs) Really, though, I wish I just would have pulled the trigger on something a little bit more expensive that came with nicer speakers.

A Boss MT-2, A copy of a Boss MT-2 (yes, I actually once bought a copy of the worst distortion pedal I've ever heard), an EHX Momentary Line Selector because I never use it and then some bass gear I bought when I briefly wanted to play bass, which I sold with some loss only months later. :P

For, me, it was buying an MG 100 HFX halfstack. Even my Valvestate V65R sounded better (but was not loud enough to be heard over a drummer, hence the "halfstack" purchase). It's not that I hated the sound of my MG at the time, it's just that I wasted so much time on bad tone, when I could have easily afforded a used 5150, Valveking, etc.

With my current rig, I just can't wait to get home and pick up my guitar. It's not so much the fact that I want to play, it's that I just can't wait to hear my rig. This has made me a much better guitar player. I wasn't as passionate about playing until I got a decent rig -- and I know I can still upgrade from here. It took me 14 years of playing to finally reach this epiphany.

The other regret I have, which is kind of along the same note -- is that early on in my playing career I spent a great deal of money on effects pedals. It's not that effects pedals are bad, it's that many of them were just novelties that kept me from focusing on my playing. My effects board now is very minimalistic comparatively; most of them focus on simply enhancing my tone.

I've made some stupid gear purchases ("upgrading" to a FM212 from a MG, buying a MG...), but I don't really regret any of them. Playing with medicore probably helped me grow as a player. I remember thinking that my tone sucked because I was a bad player, and that really pushed me to practice and improve. Now that I have decent gear, I probably spend more time tweaking my tone than practicing.

It's not like I would buy this stuff again, or recommend it to anyone else, but I think it helped me learn the limitations of certain gear and appreciate what I have now.

Personally I don't regret buying the MG I had several years ago. They aren't exactly the classic Marshall sound, but there are some good sounds in there for people who are prepared to dial them in properly. It was a good amp for what I needed & it served me well for a few years until I upgraded. Sold it to a mate & he's still happy with it today - still working as a reliable practice amp even though it's over 15 years old.

The purchase I've always regretted was my old Fender MIA Stratocaster. Spent a load of money on it thinking I'd be getting something awesome, whereas I actually found it to be extremely bland and no better than average at everything. It just gathered a load of dust while I stuck with my trusty Telecaster & Les Paul, eventually sold it & was glad to see the back of it.

My only other regret is the JCA24S that I currently have. After some advice on here, I bought it without trying it with my amp head, beleiving that it would sound similar to a V30-loaded cab, since that's what Soldano uses for his amps.

Soldano cabs are actually loaded with Eminence Legends, not V30's, which sound totally different from one another. I'm not sure what the JCA Eminences are based on, but they sound nothing like the V30's or Legend I've owned.

As far as my biggest regret, Digitech GNX3. My dad and I both got it for Christmas to share, and we both tried to like it for a while but eventually realized it was a massive piece of crap.

All the distortion sounds shitty and digital no matter what you do (think of it as glorified Line 6 Spider distortion), the EQ always has this horrendous muddy quality that you can't get rid of, it's loaded with completely useless presets and effects that aren't interesting to anyone else older than 12, and the built in "song studio" is the most pathetic and useless feature ever created.

Every once and a while I'll hook it up and try again with it to get a good sound and it just doesn't work. I've even tried hooking it into the return of my Jet City for a tube power section. Still sounds like shit.

There's also my Krank 1x12 cabinet I regret doing.. I wanted something small that I could stick in a closet to record with and mic up, but for the longest time it made all of my recordings sound honky and shitty. I should've listened to the advice of the guys who were telling me to save for a 2x12.

Seriously, once I got my Whitebox 2x12 with V30's my recordings improved by far. Now all I use my 1x12 for is to hide various sex toys and fetish items from my parents. (don't ask )

mine is a Marshall JVM410H with 1960AV, and 1960BV just about $5500.00mods 1500.00 I love the amp and I just have two regret1. I told my wife how mush it was 2. I did not get a bigger bed (Marshall are bed hugs)

My wife bought me my MG50DFX when I mentioned that I wanted to take up guitar again and although I don't use it for guitar anymore I use the mp3 in and it makes a pretty good backing tracks/monitor amp.

Biggest regret is suggesting Spider amps for 2 of my friends because they wanted flexibility and I wasn't yet familiar with the Vypyr series, but neither of them gigs and they both seem happy with what they have, although they love my various tube amps when they come over to play.

So really, nothing serious.

“Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge.” Charles Darwin

And I regret not researching anything guitar-related before buying my first set-up. When I started guitar, I didn't know there were any brands other than Gibson/Epiphone and Fender. Yeah, I was that naive and clueless. After buying my Les Paul (which wasn't a terrible purchase), I got a Fender G-DEC to go with it (that was a bad idea).

Had I done more research, I probably would have paid more attention to what kinds of guitars I was experimenting with, and would have bought a better amp.

buying a jet city picovalve. i cant give the damn thing away so its mod time for itselling my b52at100 head after i got it fixed but couldnt get sounds out of it that i liked. so i sold it even when u guys told me not to.

the big one. getting mad and refusing to listen to you guys when you were telling me that my spider 2 halfstack was trash and that it sounded like hot garbage

My early dalliance with tube amps. I experimented with a Blackstar HT, Bugera V22, Peavey Valve King, Egnater Tweaker and Fender Super-Sonic 22 before finally finding "my" sound - in a solid state Peavey Special 112. I'd written off solid state because I was new to guitar and had many friends who'd been playing for years - some of whom even recorded professionally - and they all pushed me into tube gear.

The problem is, while my friends want to sound like this, I prefer this instead - and I couldn't get my preferred sound until I tried out that old Peavey. (Coincidentally, that guitarist now plays a solid state Peavey as well).

Of course, there's the matter of that old Peavey being damn near 70 lbs, but that's my only other regret. Moral of the story? Trust your ears. For most of you, that will mean tube amps, but for the rest of you, don't think for one second that your rig is inferior just because it's transistor-driven.

I had an ibanez gio as my first guitar and only guitar up until a couple months ago, although i'm not sure i regret is as although now i hate it and never play it, it served a purpose when i knew no better.However the big mistake was when i went out to buy what I thought was my first "proper" amp, and i came back with a 75watt spider, it was fine for a couple weeks then i realised it had no good sounds and absolutely everything sounded crap, so then i went and wasted £45 on an od3, thinking i'd be able to get a nicer overdrive, which was a total waste as ss amps hate pedals.

Luckily now I've got an amazing ac30 and a fender telecaster ja-90 and the sounds are amazing, tubes made so much difference, but i suppose having shitty gear has allowed me to appreciate how amazing my new gear really does sound.

+1I've had some ridiculously shoddy gear over the few years I have been playing guitar, but that's the journey one takes to try to find their own sound. And it's also made me a more discerning customer. Right now, I'm really stoked with the gear I have - although I probs should get my WH-10 modded and I've had GAS to get an Orange Dark Terror and a 4x12...but that'll make me broke

Probably my fender Champ. I bought it cheap. And used the hell out of it. But looking back, I bought it because I thought my DSL was broken, when in reality, I had a broken speaker cable. Thats being a dumb ass for ya. But I learned and lived.

Though I did crank that champ all the time. Then boosted it with an overdrive. It sounded fairly good. The speaker sucked but when I hooked it up to my 4x12 it wasnt to shabby. Needs new tubes though. Haha

Damn, it seems like this is turning into "The People who bought MG's and Spiders"

At least now we'll have somewhere to point the people that come on and say "Why does X piece of gear get so much hate?" or that argue that the Spider they have is amazing, etc.

Quote by KailM

It's not that I hated the sound of my MG at the time, it's just that I wasted so much time on bad tone, when I could have easily afforded a used 5150, Valveking, etc.

With my current rig, I just can't wait to get home and pick up my guitar. It's not so much the fact that I want to play, it's that I just can't wait to hear my rig. This has made me a much better guitar player.

That was my main regret - that I could have spent that money on something that would have suited me much better and lasted longer for me.

I'm the same way

It just makes me sad that I hardly get a chance to play through my rig at home right now, due to my living situation

Quote by zl1288

It's not like I would buy this stuff again, or recommend it to anyone else, but I think it helped me learn the limitations of certain gear and appreciate what I have now.

I can appreciate this point of view. I do have the knowledge of how to get a decent sound out of an MG to help out other poor suckers who have bought them. My MG also led me to getting my TL-2, which I still use today.

Quote by steven seagull

It was playing up and someone who worked for my dad offered to fix it - but my dad ended up sacking him before I got round to getting it back

That freaking sucks!

Quote by Cathbard

Not a godamn thing. It's called research, guys.

Well, Mr. I don't make mistakes, I have yet to meet a 12 year old that is more into research and less into whatever looks cool and is cheap. I don't beleive for a second that every member of this forum hasn't made a gear purchase that they didn't like. Even when making informed decisions by getting advice from people that know what they're talking about (See:My JCA24S purchase) you can still end up with something that isn't what you want.

Quote by Robbgnarly

+1 I have enjoyed all of my gear. Like everyone here at the beginning it was mediocre gear, but I felt like a rockstar playing through that 25 watt Dean amp when I was a kid.

I don't think anyone should ever regret their first steup. You have to start somewhere, and if it weren't for that first amp and guitar, you wouldn't be sitting here now. I'll never regret my Squier Strat and Squier Frontman clone, nor the Frontman 15 I was given when that amp broke. Without those, I probably would have quit guitar.

I only regret getting rid of my Mesa F30. Otherwise, no gear I ever bought didn't serve its purpose. Sure, I bought a squire 10 watt amp, and sure it sucked. I also had no idea what I wanted in the electric guitar world, so it served its purpose.

Now that I think about it, I regret getting rid of my crate gx65. It went to a good home though, so I guess that wasn't too bad. (btw, those amps were basically the vh140c preamp into a smaller mono power amp)

Make sure its got the old block logo. But I don't know that they are all like that. I have an older than the gx65, g40C XL and it sounds pretty similar, though it does have 2 8 inch speakers so it isn't exact. They are dirt cheap though and definitely pretty raw sounding. Worth it to snag one. If you find one of the stereo chorus models the chorus actually sounds pretty good.

Years ago I had a really nice yamaha acoustic. I was starting to play with other musicians and drummers(haha) so I bought an ovation electric acoustic and traded the Yamaha for a couch. Less than a month later I was already missing the Yamaha and not even using the ovation. After 13 years, just a few days ago, I finally bought an acoustic (a very sexy Hohner HW-60) that I like as much as I liked that Yamaha.

Buying a 30 watt Spider III, when for the same price I could have had an Epiphone tube amp (which was re-badged as a Legacy). I didn't want to be seen playing through a Legacy, so I went with the Line 6. Makes sense, right?I've played through a couple of the Epiphone amps recently, and to be honest I don't particularly like how they sound, but it still would have been such an improvement on my sucky Line 6, which I had to put up with until this year.

I think that in the end, everyone's going to regret the gear they bought early on. Part of learning guitar is learning what gear you like, what tone you want, so maybe it wasn't really such a bad decision for us all to get an amp that could do a wide range of sounds averagely before we spent serious money on something that could do a narrower range of sounds a lot better. But can you imagine what'd be like to buy a beginner's rig with the knowledge you now hold..